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Petitions rejected over technicalities

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Supreme Court registrar raised “minor” technical objections on two government petitions challenging the release of Hafiz Saeed that were submitted on Monday, and the corrected appeals would now be resubmitted on Tuesday, said an official.

Deputy Attorney-General Shah Khawar told The Hindu the federal government and the Punjab provincial government submitted separate petitions to the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the June 2 Lahore High Court order that set free the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.

“But the registrar’s office had some minor technical objections to the petitions. We have removed those objections and complied with the court’s requirements, and the petitions will be filed on Tuesday,” said Mr. Khawar.

The petitions could not be resubmitted on the same day as the court timings were up by the time the corrections were carried out, he said.

One objection was that while Mr. Saeed’s writ petition in the Lahore High Court against his house arrest included three co-petitioners, the petitions submitted in the Supreme Court mentioned only two names — Hafiz Saeed and Colonel (retired) Nazir Ahmed.

The other two, Amir Hamza and Mufti Abdur Rehman, were released by a detention extension review board before the writ came up for hearing in the High Court. But the Supreme Court wanted their names included, as they were party to the original petition. “Both petitions are now ready, and federal government and Punjab government will be submitting them tomorrow,” said Mr. Khawar.

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Petitions rejected over technicalities

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